1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to completion assemblies or strings used in treating production zones and for producing formation fluids.
2. Background of the Art
Wellbores are drilled in subsurface formations for the production of hydrocarbons (oil and gas). Hydrocarbons are trapped in various sections or traps in the subsurface formations at different depths. Such sections are referred to as reservoirs or hydrocarbon-bearing formations or zones. Often multiple spaced-apart zones exist along wellbores, several hundred feet apart from each other. Stimulation methods are often employed to improve the mobility of the hydrocarbons through the production zones. One such method, referred to as fracturing (also referred to as “fracing” or “fracking”), is often employed to create cracks in the reservoir, enabling the fluid from the formation (formation fluid) to flow from the reservoir into the wellbore. A majority of wellbores are lined with a casing and contain a sump packer below the lowest zone. To treat the zones, a completion assembly having a number of devices corresponding to each zone, such as packers, valves and sand screens, etc., is run into the wellbore. The bottom end of the completion assembly is stabbed into the sump packer to provide tubing isolation to set the packers against the casing. In open-hole well systems, no sump packer is available to isolate the tubing of the completion assembly to set the packers against the formation. Therefore, there is a need to provide a device below the lowermost packer in a completion assembly that will remain open when the completion assembly is run into the wellbore and that can be closed once the completion assembly has been run to a desired wellbore depth, in order to set the packers to isolate the production zones prior to treating such zones.
The disclosure herein provides a completion assembly that includes a flow control device that may be activated after the assembly has been run into the wellbore to a desired depth.